Facebook mother Meta is apparently planning thousands of new layoffs

According to media reports, other employees at the US tech group Meta have to tremble for their jobs. The Facebook parent is planning a new round of layoffs that could kill thousands of jobs, the US newspaper Washington Post reported on Wednesday. A week ago, the British newspaper "Financial Times" wrote about further possible layoffs.

The group, which also owns the messenger service WhatsApp and the photo platform Instagram, announced in November that it would cut 11,000 jobs – around 13 percent of the workforce at the time. When presenting the business figures, Meta expressed optimism about the business prospects despite a slump in profits.

When asked by the Washington Post, a spokesman did not want to comment on possible layoffs, but referred to statements by Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg in early February. “We ended the past year with some hard-to-digest layoffs and restructuring of some teams. I said clearly at the time that this was the beginning of our focus on efficiency, not the end.”

As the "Washington Post" further reports, Meta is planning to restructure the company hierarchy in addition to cutting projects and jobs. Some managers should therefore be transferred to subordinate positions.

Meta is also experimenting with a subscription business model after a drop in advertising revenue. By presenting passport documents and for a monthly fee, users of Facebook and Instagram should receive verified accounts, as Zuckerberg announced on Sunday. The subscription will initially be launched in Australia and New Zealand.

There has recently been a veritable wave of layoffs in the tech industry, especially at large US companies. There are signs that the job boom that started during the corona pandemic is coming to an end. Whether Microsoft, Meta, Twitter or the SAP competitor Salesforce, they all announced that thousands of jobs would be cut.